> It can come up with something novel, but only by combining whatever present

That's what artists do. Long before LLMs, Kirby Ferguson made this observation in "Everything is a Remix" [1] in the context of Copyright and IP disputes. He has since updated it with a chapter explaining how GenAI works on the same principles. In short, "combining whatever present" is the only source of novelty.

[1]: https://www.everythingisaremix.info/watch-the-series/